Spider-Man's arch-enemy 'Venom' to rock silver screen in 2018

2018 will witness Spider-Man's nemesis Venom in all his evil glory, as the villain is set to appear in his own standalone film.

Marvel's web-slinging superhero, who is currently going through a reboot trial-and-error phase, will now face stiff competition from Venom, who will be brought to the big screen by Sony Pictures.

Venom has appeared in film before, as he was the primary antagonist in Spider-Man 3 and made a brief cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Since the concept is still in its inception phase there is no word on who will play the sharp-fanged, long-tongued villain, but screenwriters Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity) and Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) will write the script.

The film will be released on 5 October, reports the Guardian citing Variety.

Venom, An alien symbiote which requires a human host to survive, first appeared in the Spider-Man comics in 1988. The character was initially conceived as a supervillain but has since become an antihero in the manner of Deadpool, who appeared in his own film adaptation in 2016.

Sony, which now owns the film rights to the Spider-Man franchise, is said to be keen to expand the Spider-Man franchise in the same way that Marvel has with The Avengers.

Sony has also been interested in making a film featuring a collection of Spider-Man villains in the manner of Suicide Squad.

Meanwhile, Sony is busy with rebooting Spider-Man himself, as this summer will see 'Spider-Man Homecoming', a new reboot starring British teenager Tom Holland that will focus on the superhero's high-school years.

Holland is the third actor to don the red and blue costume in recent years, after Tobey Maguire, who played him in a trilogy of films between 2002-2007, and Andrew Garfield, who appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).